The GOP Has Split into Trump and Ryan Wings

The day after Donald Trump swept five primaries this week and tightened his grip on the Republican nomination for president, both he and the other most prominent Republican politician in the country were speaking the language of populism.

“We’re going to get rid of these politicians,” Trump said in his opening remarks during an hourlong appearance on Fox News on Wednesday in which Greta Van Susteren and a studio audience in Indianapolis lavished him with praise, sometimes in the form of questions.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisc.) sounded a similar note. Ryan said at Georgetown University: “We do not believe we should be governed by our betters, that elites in Washington should make all those big decisions.”

The similarities between Trump and Ryan, however, end with their recognition of antiestablishment sentiment. In fact, these two men have come to represent powerful and opposing wings of the Republican party — perspectives that are on a collision course. The tension between the two men will become all the more evident if and when Trump clinches the nomination, and a clash would be all but unavoidable should Trump defy what appear to be high odds and defeat likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the presidency.